THE pass-fail rule of business schools is simple: nobody fails. Every year, in every programme, everyone graduates, other than in a few extreme cases. Every candidate who is admitted will graduate because they were admitted. In fact, the better the school’s reputation, the less grades or exams seem to matter. If you were good enough to get in, you’re good enough, full stop.

The MBA application is, for all practical purposes, the final exam. Admission is the only hurdle between the candidate and a top MBA. Part of business-school culture is that the MBA is not an academic degree. Smart people are preferred but the most intelligent people don’t always make the best business leaders. This explains why those with 740-plus Gmat scores may be refused places in preference to those with personality, talent and drive. Admissions committees prefer dynamic people with a successful track record, particularly if they have interesting plans for the future.

This means that anyone with respectable undergraduate results and a good professional record has a realistic chance of getting into the finest business schools, provided they have the strategic and competitive understanding of what in their background is valuable to the admissions committee and the ability to communicate it powerfully.

MBA admission turns on the simplest and oldest rule in communications strategy: to win you need to connect your objectives with those of your audience. To find and exploit the overlap between you and the admissions committee, you need to understand the world from its point of view.

In choosing candidates the admissions committee has to satisfy four stakeholders: other students (to provide them with a talented, diverse and experienced class); recruiters (to provide them with a high-value network); the faculty (to provide them with bright, interesting, challenging students) and the school (to provide lifetime ambassadors).

The key to admission is to position yourself as the candidate who will help the committee to most comprehensively and reliably serve these aims. It’s as simple as that.

Precis from MBA Admissions Strategy: From Profile Building to Essay Writing, by A. V. Gordon (Open University Press/ McGraw-Hill, £13.99).

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